The present invention relates to tobacco processing machines in general, and more particularly to improvements in apparatus which can be used in such machines to manipulate uniting bands of paper or the like. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus which can be used in cigarette rod making machines, filter rod making machines, cigarette packing machines and like machines for the making and/or processing of smokers' products to receive, to transport to and to apply adhesive-coated uniting bands to stationary or running webs of wrapping material at the web splicing stations of such machines.
It is well known to automatically or semiautomatically splice the leader of a fresh web of cigarette paper to the trailing portion of a running web when the supply of running web is nearly exhausted. Analogously, it is customary to splice the trailing end of a running web of wrapping material in a filter rod making machine to the leader of a fresh web so as to ensure that the operation of the machine need not be interrupted for the sole purpose of drawing a web from a fresh bobbin of wrapping material. The situation is analogous in many types of packing machines wherein webs of metallic and/or plastic foil are being drawn from bobbins for conversion into blanks which are thereupon converted into constituents of soft or hard packs for cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos or other smokers' products.
In many machines of the tobacco processing industry, the making of a splice between the trailing end of a stationary or running web and the leader of a fresh web involves the placing of a uniting band between the two webs and moving one of the webs sideways toward the other web. The uniting band is coated with adhesive at both sides so that one adhesive-coated side adheres to the trailing end of the running web and the other adhesive-coated side adheres to the leader of the fresh web. It is also customary to sever the trailing end of the running web immediately behind the thus obtained splice in order to separate the running web from the remnant of the respective (expired) bobbin, and to sever or trim the leader of the fresh web immediately ahead of the splice so as to reduce the length of the unnecessary portion of the fresh web. The uniting band is placed onto a suitable support which is disposed at the splicing station between the paths for the running web and the leader of the fresh web, and such uniting band is automatically separated from its support when it is caused to adhere to the two webs because the running web pulls the uniting band off the support. The placing of a uniting band onto the support at the splicing station must be carried out with skill and care in order to ensure that the uniting band is invariably detached from the support when one of its adhesive-coated sides is contacted by the running web as well as that the uniting band establishes a satisfactory bond between the running and fresh webs in order to ensure that the leader of the fresh web is actually entrained into the wrapping mechanism of a cigarette rod making machine or the like. Improper application of a uniting band at the splicing station can entail a prolonged stoppage of the machine which can result in pronounced losses in output. It must be borne in mind that a modern cigarette maker turns out up to and even in excess of 8000 cigarettes per minute.